Movie Review: IT Chapter Two

IT Chapter Two

Director: Andy Muschietti

Starring: Bill Skarsgård, Bill Hader, James McAvoy, Jessica Chastain, Isaiah Mustafa, James Ransone, Jay Ryan, Andy Bean

Rating: R

Runtime: 169 minutes

I really dug IT due to its unexpectedly heartfelt center. Plus, on top of it’s strong comedic and emotional core, Bill Skarsgård’s performance as Pennywise was absolutely chilling. It wasn’t your average horror film. IT Chapter Two is no different, though it suffers from some more technical problems, it never loses sight of what made the first one so great.

The biggest problem with this movie comes in the second act. It runs into some significant pacing and editing issues that seem easy to fix with some rearranging of scenes or with some cutting. The second act consists of each main character going on their very own fetch quest, and we get to see all of it. These scenes, while individually strong, are placed back-to-back and are all nearly identical to each other. By the third or fourth scene, it becomes easy to predict exactly what’s going to happen in the next few. While these scenes are significant for character development, it ultimately slows the plot progression to a crawl and quickly becomes stale. The scenes should be frightening but they’re just too predictable.

On a similar note, many of the scares in this movie are exactly the same. The spooky thing appears, usually, quietly, the protagonist sees the spooky thing and then there’s a beat of tension. Then, the spooky thing jumps forward at the character and is accompanied by a loud musical cue. The problem here is not that there are a lot of jump scares, it’s the very repetitive nature of these particular scares. For a jump scare to be effective it needs to be surprising. Halfway through the movie, they stop being surprising because the audience has been hit with the same scare multiple times. Not to mention, that’s on top of the number of times that same trick is used in the first movie. This significantly adds to the repetitive nature of the second act.

However, with all that’s said there, it’s still a mostly enjoyable movie. This is because it’s more than a horror movie. IT Chapter Two is equal parts a comedy, horror, and a character drama. While the horror is lacking some ways, it’s a genuinely great character piece. The film utilizes flashbacks in a very effective manner to both develop these characters, and also to drive home the film’s theme. On top of that, these flashbacks are often accompanied by delightfully creative transitions. They’re not overly flashy or distracting, they’re just clever.

The actors that portray the adult versions of the kids from the first film are all spot-on. Performance wise, McAvoy, Hader, and Ransone are standouts. On top of delivering stellar performances in their own rights, they each perfectly capture the very specific deliveries and cadences of their young counterparts. Hader, especially, is a joy to witness. Richie, as previously portrayed by Finn Wolfhard, steals this movie just as he did the first. The first time around he did so just by having the best one-liners and jokes, but this film adds much more emotional depth to the character. He’s still, by far, the funniest character, but there’s so much more to him this time around. He’s the one you’ll be talking about when leaving the theater, and he’s the one that’s going to stick with you for years to come.

Though, he’s not the only one, as Bill Skarsgård continues to absolutely crush the role of Pennywise. Pennywise in the first film was an unexpectedly memorable character. I think it’s a testament to the quality of Skarsgård’s portrayal that the scariest moments in both films are when he’s just delivering dialogue. Sure, he sometimes makes a spooky face and chases people, but that’s not where the real fear comes from. His off-putting mannerisms and quirks are just deeply unsettling. It almost makes me want to complain that he doesn’t get enough of those moments, but I think their scarcity is part of why they’re so effective. This film, much like the first, has just two or three of those scenes. Yet again, they’re by far the scariest moments. It’s a performance that you can’t tear your eyes from and never fails to recapture the audience’s occasionally waning attention.

IT Chapter Two is full of heart and delightfully strange ideas. It’s the film’s strong center that makes me overlook its significant pacing and editing issues, and ultimately still love it. It’s a not-so-scary horror film, but it has so much else going for it. It doesn’t quite live up to the first film’s tight and concise structure but it’s a worthy follow-up.

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